2024 World Kidney Day Statement
American Association of Kidney Patients (AAKP)
WASHINGTON, D.C.: The American Association of Kidney Patients (AAKP), the largest independent kidney patient organization in the United States, issued a statement (see below) in recognition of World Kidney Day 2024 and in support of kidney patients worldwide. AAKP called attention to the critical need for greater patient-centered medicine, value-based care, and medical innovations that can transcend outdated, status-quo kidney care, including high-mortality dialysis.
In the U.S., AAKP has a 50-year history of fighting for greater patient care choice, access to care innovations, and disability rights. From 1972-1973, AAKP’s patient founders helped win bipartisan U.S. Congressional approval and President Richard M. Nixon’s approval of America’s kidney care entitlement program, which serves every person suffering from kidney failure. Since 2018, AAKP has led The Global Summit on Kidney Disease Innovations in partnership with the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, which engages patients, professionals, researchers, and medical companies in over 100 countries.
AAKP conducts the largest national voter registration and mobilization initiative in the U.S. for the kidney community, KidneyVoters™. The effort engages patients, organ transplant recipients, families and loved ones, allied medical professionals, researchers, and medical industry employees on critical issues impacting kidney health and patient outcomes. AAKP educates and mobilizes KidneyVoters™ to raise their voices to appointed and elected leaders and to hold policymakers fully accountable for their commitments to improved kidney care.
2024 World Kidney Day Statement
As the largest and oldest fully independent kidney patient organization in the United States, with an established international reach, the American Association of Kidney Patients (AAKP) proudly raises our voice in support of fellow kidney patients across the globe on World Kidney Day. We also salute all dedicated kidney professionals who provide life-saving care and the talented researchers and private sector workers who collaborate to bring forward innovations in diagnostics, drugs, and devices to reduce further suffering and preventable loss of life. The efforts of all people of goodwill who are engaged in the noble battle against kidney disease warrant respect and recognition each and every day.
The human and economic burdens of kidney disease among people, families, and societies are well-researched, well-documented, and overwhelming. Kidney disease is both a healthcare and workforce issue. The disease leads to disability, job loss, low workforce participation rates, dependency on charitable and public assistance, and premature death. Status quo kidney care, including dialysis, has saved countless lives over many decades. But the time is now to transcend outdated kidney care through greater innovation, patient-centered medicine, and value-based care. Patients, as the primary and most important stakeholders, should have far greater involvement in kidney-related policies, regulatory decisions, and payment determinations that impact their lives and livelihoods. Governments across the world must be held fully accountable for their actions to both prevent disease occurrence and improve patient outcomes. When governments either knowingly or unwittingly interfere with the best interests of patients and innovation, their actions should be labeled as Government Determinants of Health (GDoH) and should not be allowed to stand.
Patients and kidney professionals are united in their belief that scarce private and public resources spent to manage kidney disease can be used far more intelligently. Smarter investments in basic science along with more comprehensive kidney disease screening and earlier intervention with new therapies will slow kidney disease progression, prevent kidney failure, and save more lives. Removal of burdensome disincentives for ethical living organ donation and simultaneous vigilance against unethical commoditization of people and their organs will increase the pool of available kidneys for those awaiting life-saving transplants. Greater focus on the development of bio-engineered kidneys, artificial implantable and wearable kidneys, and xenotransplantation technologies will expand access and opportunity for life-saving treatments to people across the globe, especially in nations whose economies and infrastructure do not support legacy dialysis.
On World Kidney Day, we recommit ourselves to the core principles that have defined AAKP and our efforts to help fellow kidney patients throughout the past and during this Decade of the Kidney™. These include the principles of patient care choice, protection of the patient and doctor relationship, and high-quality kidney care defined as treatments that best align and empower patients to pursue their human aspirations, just like any other person.
We remember all innocent immunocompromised and immunosuppressed kidney patients whose lives were lost during the COVID pandemic. We remain fully committed to making certain that governments and societies do not ignore or forget the ongoing threat of serious illness and death that COVID poses to vulnerable kidney patients. We hope and pray that all patients living under authoritarian dictatorships and regimes that reject fundamental human rights, the dignity of life, and scientific rigor, including China and Iran, may one day share in the benefits of new kidney cures and treatments.
This is a highly optimistic time for kidney medicine and innovation. The potential to save more lives and reduce burdens on people, families, and societies has never been greater. We encourage all people involved in the fight against kidney disease to remain fully committed and engaged, and we ask all who have yet to commit themselves to join this noble effort. By doing so, you will never pause to wonder if you contributed to a cause larger than yourself.
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Since 1969, The American Association of Kidney Patients has been a patient-led organization driving policy discussions on kidney patient care choice and medical innovation. Over the past decade, AAKP patient advocates have helped advance lifetime transplant drug coverage for kidney transplant recipients (2020); the presidential Executive Order on Advancing American Kidney Health (2019); new job protections for living organ donors under the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) via the U.S. Department of Labor (2018); and Congressional legislation allowing HIV-positive organ transplants for HIV-positive patients (2013). Follow AAKP on social media at @kidneypatient on Facebook, @kidneypatients on X, and @kidneypatients on Instagram, and visit www.aakp.org for more information.
